Ushahidi, a crisis management software developer based out of Nairobi has launched TenFour, a check-in application for teams. The firm says it built TenFour after a team member was involved in a terrorist attack and it needed a quick way to check in with each other in critical situations.
“We built this tool to help other teams reach each other everyday and in a crisis,” said Nathaniel Manning, Chief Executive Officer, Ushahidi in a newsletter to users. “Because people talk on so many channels, it’s hard to reach people, particularly if you have a dispersed team or community, and particularly when it’s urgent.”
TenFour allows users to send messages via email, SMS or app, so there’s no dependence on the platform or device. Allows a user to secure team info with multiple points of contact, all synced securely via encrypted transport. User can also form groups by adding their contacts to a group and allow multiple admin and user roles, so that your team only sees what they want.
TenFour allows real-time communication and is simple to use as no training is required. The platform is targeted at either HR managers, team leads among others as it them to quickly do daily check-ins, run quick polls, and answer the question, “who needs help?” across email, SMS and apps.
According to the firm, other messaging apps simply haven’t kept up with the demands of modern organizations and aren’t suitable for businesses and become clogged up when you have too many people. And large enterprise offerings are too cumbersome and unaffordable.
TenFour’s Pro plan gives users access to SMS, email and Slack check-ins starting at just $39 per month.
This is not the first time Ushahidi has tried its hands at messaging services. In 2014, Ushahidi launched Ping, in what it said was an aim to help users get an immediate answer to the simple question of “Are you okay?” The firm said Ping was a hosted service that doesn’t require a certain device or a certain platform to send or receive messages and was already translated into 15 languages and worked with a variety of global SMS providers like Nexmo, Twilio, Clickatell, at launch. TenFour looks like a revamped version of Ping.
